Sure. its big and gives us lots of choice etc. but the problem with these malls is that they have no concept of customer focus.
Today I walked into Total Mall on Sarjapur road and bought some 3 grand worth of stuff. Within that, was about 1000/- worth of prestige cookware for which I had a set of gift certificates from Prestige.
Knowing how these malls operate, I had first checked whether the certs would be accepted, with one of the floor managers. He double checked and confirmed it would be. So imagine my surprise when the supervisor at checkout casually claims it wont be. After all the shopping was done.
I obviously pointed out that one of the store managers had confirmed it would be. But this guys says "no". So I asked him to go check with the store manager. He then lands up with the Head of the store.
The head of the store turns out to be a totally condescending, dont care guy. First he tries to wave me away. When I continued to point out that one of his staff had confirmed, he decides to make me wait, while he makes random calls to people. Some 30 mts later, I finally lost it and canceled the purchase. But he was least bothered.
What I found most surprising is that the head of the store had neither the courtesy to apologise for making me wait, nor the ability to take a decision one way or the other. He may even have been right. but the fact that it was his own staff that created the confusion, for which he owed me at least an apology, seemed to escape him totally.
I guess we can build international quality malls. But we have a long way to go before we understand how to maintain service levels.